In the 1999 cult classic, The Matrix, there's an iconic scene at the end. In the battle between humans and an all-powerful AI machine, Neo (or The One, played by Keanu Reeves) suddenly realises that he can see, really see the Matrix in all its detail. Instead of seeing 3 heavily-armed assassins trying to shoot him, Neo sees the several lines of code that run the Matrix. I sometimes have that feeling when I come across good stories. Instead of tweets, emails, posts, articles, presentations or speeches... I see storytelling techniques. I see how someone used a cool way to start, I see a surprising use of contrast, a brilliant analogy or I see a vivid visual doing the work of a thousand words. And for the longest time, I've been wanting to share what I see with everyone else. But I've struggled on two counts: 1. Having the courage to make a commitment to do this on a regular basis 2. Having an overarching, comprehensive structure of storytelling techniques - something which I can tie back the examples to. Item # 2 I managed to launch in my post yesterday (link in the first comment). Expect that to undergo several edits! As for # 1, I'm finally taking the plunge now. Presenting #SOTD - or Story of the Day (Storytelling Technique of the Day was too long!) Taking inspiration from #ROTD (or Read of the Day, by Saurabh Devendra Singh and Swanand Kelkar), I'm going to identify a story learning moment from something that I read, watched or heard... and share it with you on this platform. In a way, I want to take you all on my learning journey. And give you a peek into the Storytelling Matrix. Come, take the red pill and join me in the #SOTD journey. It promises to be a fun ride.
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One interesting aspect about US culture is the tendency to keep names short and crisp. Many of us in India (especially us south Indians) have multi-syllable names. Take men's names for example. My first name has four syllables. My dear friend Anantharaman beats me with five. A name like Sivaramakrishnan has six. Of course, we do use shortened names like Ravi and Ananth. But those too tend to be at least two syllables, if not more. Ra-vi A-nanth Ma-nish Aa-shish Chin-tan Dee-pak Sau-rabh Har-shad What is more remarkable is that in the US (and other Anglo-Saxon cultures) most names (especially for men) are shortened to one-syllable. Andrew becomes Drew. Abraham is Abe. Benjamin is Ben. Christopher is Chris. Daniel is Dan. David is Dave. Donald is Don. Douglas is Doug. Edward is Ed. Jacob is Jake. Jeffery is Jeff. Joseph is Joe. Jonathan is Jon. Joshua is Josh. Kenneth is Ken. Kevin is Kev. Matthew is Matt. Michael is Mike. Nicholas is Nick. Patrick is Pat. Peter is Pete. Raymond is Ray. Richard is Dick. Robert is Bob. Ronald is Ron. Samuel is Sam. Steven is Steve. Thomas is Tom. Timothy is Tim. William is Will. And... Philip becomes Phil. Lucas is Luke. Mitchell is Mitch. Cameron is Cam. (Ok, I'm a Modern Family fan) Zachary is Zach. And the magnificent four-syllabled Bartholomew becomes Bart. And of course, there are the names which are single-syllable to start with. Paul. John. James. Jack. Mark. Frank. Scott. Even six-letter names like George and Charles are single-syllable! Not just that. Metro systems are given short acronyms which can be read as (of course) single-syllable names. The Bay Area Rapid Transit becomes BART. Dallas Area Rapid Transit is, you guessed it, DART. New York's improbably named Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation is PATH. Even formal government corporations are on board. The serious-sounding 'Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation' is shortened to the friendly 'Freddie Mac' while the 'Federal National Mortgage Association' becomes your caring aunt 'Fannie Mae'. These aren't just cute nicknames. Their websites have these very URLs. And finally, let me come to the visual that sparked this post. Words on signages, which may be a bit long, are shortened to make them crisper. Road becomes Rd. Boulevard is Blvd. or Bd. Court is Ct. Circle is Cir. Crossing is Xing. Drive is Dr. And so on. What aspects have you seen which follow this trend? #USAStories
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Hi folks, here is the sixtieth edition of my weekly newsletter (3-2-1 by Story Rules) where I share six examples of good storytelling.
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Hi folks, here is the fifty-ninth edition of my weekly newsletter (3-2-1 by Story Rules) where I share six examples of good storytelling.
Storytelling Tips from Shaan Puri (3-2-1 by Story Rules #59)
Ravishankar Iyer on LinkedIn
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One fascinating aspect of life in the US is the reliance on structure, order and planning. Take cities for example. Nature is free-flowing and does not follow rigid patterns. But try telling that to San Francisco's original city planners. They applied the tried-and-tested grid pattern from other US cities in a comprehensive and rigid manner, such that they built ramrod straight roads (intersecting with other straight roads at right angles) even over the steepest of hills. (see the images - and zoom in to check out the slope!) And so, San Francisco's famous cable car trundles at steep angles, cars are always parked with their hand-brakes on and houses might be having extra triangular-shaped spaces underneath the floors, given the slopes on which they are built. All because of the preference for clear order and structure. Mind you - the US didn't invent grid-based planning for cities. Our very own Indus Valley civilisation had them thousands of years ago, and various urban settlements across history have used some form of grid-based layouts. But it's cities in the US which have embraced the grid plan most whole-heartedly (conquering nature to the maximum extent possible!). Apart from this, I also saw examples of planning and a systems orientation in various other places. For instance, a food-court-type restaurant in the Yosemite Valley had a beautiful system for the entire ordering-to-exit process with minimal human intervention. Ordering happened through user-friendly screens and you received a coupon with a token number. Then once you picked up your food, all accompaniments such as plates, spoons, forks, condiments, and water were stored in separate clearly marked containers. But what was perhaps most impressive was the disposal system. Customers were expected to clear up after eating and had at least 8 separate containers for different types of cutlery, plates and trays. It was all very user-friendly with almost no need to ask a restaurant attendant for help. I was impressed with the extent of planning and systems thinking. Structure is a critical skill in storytelling - the ability to bucket ideas into the right groups and share them in an organised way is critical for audience understanding. Perhaps it is no wonder that frameworks like the Pyramid Principle (a story structuring tool) emerged from the US given their orientation to order. What are some examples of order and structure that you have seen in the US? #USAStories
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How you would explain Moore's Law to a child? Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years with minimal rise in cost. At the Intel Museum in Santa Clara, there was a cool exhibit which presented Moore's law in terms that even a young child would understand. It did so by asking - 'How high can you jump on a skateboard?' If you can jump 1.5 feet today (a small stool), in two years you'll be jumping 3 feet (about the height of a goat). In 10 years it would be almost 50 feet (about 5 elephants). And in 20 years, about 1600 feet - that is like a superhero jumping over an office building! And with that simple visual metaphor, the Museum team had made something as technical as Moore's Law relatable to everyone... and made everyone realise the incredible nature of an achievement that most would take for granted. When presenting technical information make it relatable to the audience. #USAStories (This is one among a series of posts I am writing about my observations on storytelling during my visit to the US)
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How do you show the complexity of a computer chip? And that too to a child? The Intel Museum at Santa Clara does a great job. Computer chips - something we rely on almost every moment of our life - are incredibly complex pieces of technology. At the Intel Museum, they had a display screen about 4-feet tall, with an image of a 1.2-centimeter chip. But here's the cool part. The image was zoomable. As you zoomed into the screen, it kept showing increasing levels of detail (and complexity). And then, to make the numbers relatable, the display compared the dimensions at each level to everyday items that we can connect with (to the extent possible!). For instance: - 12 mm was compared with the width of a pencil - 4.6 mm to the width of the pupil of an eye - 0.19 mm to the width of human hair and so on. It's a fascinating display that boggles your mind - HOW are they able to fit in so much in such a small space?! It's also a great example of storytelling - of how to make small numbers relatable. Prof. Chip Heath - who wrote the superb book 'Making Numbers Count' - would approve. #USAStories
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Hi folks, here is the fifty-eighth edition of my weekly newsletter (3-2-1 by Story Rules) where I share six examples of good storytelling.
On using Historical Perspective Devices (3-2-1 by Story Rules #58)
Ravishankar Iyer on LinkedIn
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It was 2014. I was in a prison building. And I was mesmerised by what I was hearing. Alcatraz is a small island offshore from San Francisco, USA. For several decades it was the most (in)famous prison in the world. Although situated just 2 kms. from the city, escape was nearly impossible given the cold water temperatures and the strong currents. The penitentiary inspired several Hollywood movies like 'The Rock', 'Escape from Alcatraz', and 'Birdman of Alcatraz'. The iconic prison was shut down in 1963, however, and Alcatraz became a tourist destination. But think about it - what special experience can a set of dull prison cells offer fun-seeking tourists? "Here's cell no. 27. Here's cell no. 28, which, by the way, is identical. And here's the cafeteria." Yawn. But that's where the storytelling genius of Alcatraz's award-winning audio-tour came in. On that clear October day in 2014, as we got embarked from the ferry, we were offered an audio playback device with headphones. And, as the audio-tour took us around the island prison through several points, we were transported to a different era. The tour featured interviews with the actual prisoners and prison guards, giving listeners a ringside view of how life would have been in the now-empty prison cells. Anecdotes about famous prisoners, crazy escape attempts, and even the mundane realities of daily prison life made the place come alive in my imagination. In fact, this experience was one of the inspirations for 'CaptivaTour' the audio-guides startup that I co-founded with a couple of batchmates. (We eventually had to shut it down though!) :( Anyway, the point of this post is a different one. This whole month, I am in the US on vacation, visiting relatives and exploring different places in this fascinating country. And of course, as is my wont, I'll be viewing everything from a storytelling lens. So, over the course of this month (and later), I will be sharing stories from the US. Stories of my observations on US culture. Stories about quintessentially US elements. Stories about aspects that locals might take for granted but an outsider like me would find fascinating. Join me for the ride! #USAStories
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Hi folks, here is the fifty-seventh edition of my weekly newsletter (3-2-1 by Story Rules) where I share six examples of good storytelling.
The WW2 Story of Germany's Failed Rocket Program (3-2-1 by Story Rules #57)
Ravishankar Iyer on LinkedIn
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Please register for this unique virtual event where you will get to watch 12 outstanding non-profits tell their story in just 5 minutes. You'll learn something from every organisation. And you'll come away inspired. 25-April-2024, 5.30 PM IST
The wait is over! SVP India's highly anticipated Fast Pitch 2024 grand event is happening on April 25th, 2024 at 5:30 PM IST. Witness the power of 12 inspiring NGOs take center stage as they share the stories of their work and impact. Our finalists have received invaluable support from SVP India's partners to make their Best Pitch. Join us for an evening of inspiration and impact. Be a part of the cheering squad and support these changemakers as they strive to make a difference. Don't miss out! Register today and mark your calendar. Follow us for updates. #SVPFastPitch #SVPIndia #FastPitch2024 #EngagedPhilanthropy #FundraisingEvent
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Story Coach: I help people tell better stories of their work
2yHere's the post with the story techniques framework: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ravishankar-iyer_storytelling-activity-6897411335500435456-W6tO